So who won, you ask? Hit the jump to find out….

And the winners are:

1. Scott S.
2. Roy
3. Adam – who pointed out that our company name has 13 letters in it; not a song entry, but we all thought that was pretty cool as we hadn’t noticed it, so I decided it was worth a prize!
4. NetCaptive
5. Ravi Penumaka
6. Mark S.
7. d..ecay
8. Kaur
9. Allen S.
10. David
11. Singh
12. czarbucks – from Twitter
13. Mouseboots – from Twitter

I’ll be emailing everyone (or sending a DM to the Twitter winners to get their email addresses) with the info for their Amazon gift card this morning. If you don’t get your card, reply to this post and let me know.

And that concludes our 13th anniversary celebration week. We had lots of fun and I hope you did too. Thanks to everyone who joined in our contest! And once again – many, many thanks to everyone who helped us get where we are today. We wouldn’t have made it 13 years without you!

See you next year, as we unveil whatever is we’ll come up with for the number 14 – good thing we have a whole year to think about it!

Of course, we know we would never have made it this far without you: our loyal customers, reviewers, friends, colleagues, supporters, partners, beta testers – everyone who has helped us out over the last 13 years, and kept us moving forward. We couldn’t have done this without you, and while we’ll never be able to thank you enough, I’ll put this in all caps so you can tell I’m really serious: THANK YOU!!

You know, some people say that 13 is an unlucky number – but that’s not always the case, especially not today! Hit the jump for some fun factoids about our new favorite number. And did someone say contest? Because we want to celebrate with you and give away some cool prizes.

13 doesn’t always have to mean bad luck – I know someone whose favorite number is 13. After a little bit of digging, I found out some interesting things (okay, granted this is from Wikipedia, but I’m going to assume it’s all roughly true):

• Some buildings don’t have a 13th floor thanks to superstition (this one I knew – I stayed in a hotel once where the elevator buttons went from 12 to 14!)
• No driver in Formula One racing has had a 13 on their car since 1976 – I wonder if the 13 car had a bad accident that year?
• There are 13 cards in a suit
• Friday the 13th is my favorite horror movie series. Well, right behind Nightmare on Elm Street. Okay, and Evil Dead. So never mind, it’s my third favorite (alright, that’s not on Wikipedia – just wanted to make sure you’re paying attention)
• Here’s the one I found most interesting: The Apollo 13 mission was launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 CST and the explosion happened on April 13th. Lots of 13’s in that instance
• And this one isn’t from the Wikipedia page either, but Ellen read it while looking up info about the number 13, and it’s another weird little fact so I wanted to share: Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names

So you see? 13 is a complex and interesting number, and not necessarily always bad luck. And now that the lesson is over, let’s move forward to our:

REALLY AWESOME ANNIVERSARY CONTEST

Do you think it’ll have something to do with the number 13? If you’ve picked up on that theme, then you’re absolutely right. It’s pretty simple to enter, all I need is an answer to this question:

Can you name a song with the word ‘13′ in the lyrics?

That’s it! But it might be harder than it sounds. I’ve been trying to think for days, and have only come up with one song so far. I won’t spoil it and say the song, just in case you’re thinking it too.

So, how do you enter? Well, you can leave a comment below, of course. Or you can send us a tweet with a reply. Enter as many times as you’d like. In the event of multiple people with the same guess(es), the first person to get their reply in will be put in the random drawing.

I’ll keep this contest open until Friday morning, then I’ll dust off my ol’ contest hat and choose 13 winners . Winners of what, you ask? How about a nice hearty handshake and a great big smile from all of us to you. No good? You want stuff? Okay – each winner will get a $20 Amazon.com gift card so you can buy whatever stuff you like.

So that’s it – dig through your CDs (or shuffle through your iPods, whatever it is people do these days) and start thinking about songs with the word ‘13′ in them. Good luck to everyone, and I’ll see you back here on Friday!

But, I’ve dusted off the ol’ contest hat and I’m ready to pick a new winner for our blog comment contest from the month of June. This month’s winning comment actually comes from one of the anniversary posts: Chantelle, who commented on “Contest Three: Finish this sentence”. Congrats! You may not have won the original contest, but your comment still earned you a prize! I’ve just sent you an email – if you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

And to everyone else – be sure to keep coming back and sharing your thoughts and opinions. Who knows, the next winner could be you!

Well, in the meantime, while you wait for your dream devices to become reality, how about I announce the winners? Yeah, I thought you’d like that idea. The first place winner of a $50 Amazon or iTunes gift card is: spmwinkel, who cleverly posted a wish for every letter of the alphabet. Great thinking!

Our runners-up, who each receive a $25 Amazon or iTunes gift card, are: Doug, Philip Ferris, and HKK. Winners, I’ll be contacting you via email to find out which store you’d like your gift card from. If you don’t get that email later today, reply to this post to let me know.

And to the winners of the other contests last week - I’ll be sending out the gift cards this morning, so let me know if you don’t get your email!

This officially concludes our special anniversary celebration – we will now return to our regular blog broadcasting. Thanks to everyone for playing along – I hope you enjoyed our 12th anniversary as much as we did. See you next year for lucky 13!

My ideal mobile device would….

That’s it – easy as pie! You can be honest, you can be imaginitive, or you can be both. For example, I sometimes honestly wish my computer would sprout arms and legs and start cleaning the house like Rosie on The Jetsons. (I get to cheat and say ‘computer’ because I don’t have any mobile devices of my own.)

So here’s your chance to tell us about the cool gadget ideas you’ve had. Maybe you’ve wished your phone could send music via Bluetooth to your hearing aid. Or you’ve always dreamt of being able to say “beam me up, HTC Advantage” and get teleported to work, avoiding the stress of rush hour.

You’ve got all weekend to get your thoughts together, so brainstorm as many as you like and send us a bunch of comments. I promise we won’t take any of your ideas and apply for patents. Well, unless they’re really, really good

This is the last contest in our week-long 12-year anniversary celebration. We will pick four winners during each contest: the winners can choose between an iTunes or Amazon gift card as their prize. First place winners receive a $50 gift card, and runners-up will get $25. Enter as many times as you like, by submitting your entries as replies to this post. Employees and friends of Ilium Software aren’t eligible to win, but are welcome (and encouraged) to participate anyway. Today’s contest closes at 12 noon Eastern Time Monday. Winners will be announced during the day Monday or Tuesday, after we sift through all the great mobile device ideas.

Anyway, on to what you really want to know: the winners! There were a lot of great stories that reminded some of us here of our own childhoods. But, unfortunately, not everyone can win, so we finally settled on our four favorites.

The first place winner of a $50 Amazon or iTunes gift card is Robbie - your brilliant plan to use “Pong” to (try to) win yourself a girl won us over during voting!

Our three runners-up, who each receive a $25 Amazon or iTunes gift card, are: Singh (your calculator watch was probably pretty cool back then – I remember those), Melvyn (I actually do believe about your teacher’s name; it’s one of those things that’s so awful, it has to be true), and Patrick (wow – I didn’t have to run the mile until high school, but it was still dreadful then).

Winners, I’ll be contacting you via email to find out which store you’d like your gift card from. If you don’t get that email later today, reply to this post to let me know.

So, let’s give a big round of congratulations to all the winners, and a big thank you to everyone for playing and sharing your stories from yesteryear. There is one more contest coming tomorrow, so don’t stray too far from our blog because you won’t want to miss another chance to win a big prize!

And just a reminder: we’ve got a big anniversary sale running on our site this week too. All the software in our online store, and eWallet on the iPhone App Store, are discounted BIG right now. Check it out here!

What were you like when you were twelve?

Simple, right? Everyone was 12 once, and it lasted a whole year, so you’ve got to have lots of great stories about it. Were you the president of the computer club, or maybe a jock-in-training, or perhaps you were like, totally, the cheerleading captain. Did you have one of those awesome, giant cell phones like Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell? Maybe you liked to take apart toasters and turn them into shortwave radios, build model cars, or put together little dance routines with your friends (yes, I admit it, that was me).

Spend a little time reminiscing and let us know in the comments below – we’ve only been 12 for a couple days now and we want to know what we have to look forward to! And I promise, no matter how big of a dork – or how “rad” - you were, we won’t laugh…at least, not to your face.

This is the second contest in our week-long 12-year anniversary celebration. We will pick four winners during each contest: the winners can choose between an iTunes or Amazon gift card as their prize. First place winners receive a $50 gift card, and runners-up will get $25. Enter as many times as you like, by submitting your entries as replies to this post. Employees and friends of Ilium Software aren’t eligible to win, but are welcome (and encouraged) to participate anyway. Today’s contest closes at 12:00 noon Eastern Time tomorrow. Winners will be announced during the day tomorrow.

And don’t forget, we’ve got more going on this week besides contests! Shop for anything in our online store and get a big $12 discount off your purchase! You can read more here and start shopping now.

The first place winner of a $50 Amazon or iTunes gift card is Melvyn, for the crazy headline: “Today Microsoft announced its merger with Amazon and unveiled its plans to sell toenails to Bolivia.” Eww…gross. Can you even imagine a merger like that – or living in Bolivia and seeing toenails for sale at your local store?

Our three runners-up, who each receive a $25 Amazon or iTunes gift card, are: Paperjet, Shaun, and MikeCTZA. Well done, everyone! I’ll be contacting you via email to find out which store you’d like your gift card from. If you don’t get that email later today, reply to this post to let me know.

To everyone who played, thanks so much – the entries were great, and it was a tough decision. But don’t go far, because we’ll start a new contest tomorrow and you can try your luck at a prize again!

And just a reminder: we’ve got a big anniversary sale running on our site this week too. All of the software in our online store, and eWallet on the iPhone App Store, are discounted BIG right now. Check it out here!

One of the best contests we ran for last year’s party was a fun-filled game of mobile-style MadLibs; we got a lot of hilarious responses. So, I decided we really should go for another round!

If you don’t know what MadLibs are, well, that’s just sad – they were a childhood staple where I grew up. I’ve got some fond memories of rainy afternoons sitting around laughing at the crazy MadLibs my friends and I used to make up. And that was just last week! Anyway, you can get a crash course on MadLibs here, then head on back to this post more details on our contest.

Ready? All right – here’s the deal: go get a pen and paper (you do still know what pen and paper are, right? If not, open a new “note” on your phone) and ask someone (preferably not a stranger on the bus, but you can if you’d like) for just the words in blue on the screenshot below. Don’t read them the whole sentences! Trust me, you’ll get better results if the person isn’t trying to think of words that really fit the headlines. Write down all their answers, put them together in each headline, read the results aloud, and have yourselves a nice big laugh!

Fill in as many of the headlines as you like (you don’t have to answer every one), and send us your entries as replies to this post. You’ll need to type the entire headline into the comments, not just your answers to the words in blue – otherwise it’s going to make even less sense. We’ll do the judging and announce the winners tomorrow.

This is the first contest in our week-long 12-year anniversary celebration. We will pick four winners during each contest: the winners can choose between an iTunes or Amazon gift card as their prize. First place winners receive a $50 gift card, and runners-up will get $25. Enter as many times as you like, by submitting your entries as replies to this post. Employees and friends of Ilium Software aren’t eligible to win, but are welcome (and encouraged) to participate anyway. Today’s contest closes at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time tomorrow morning. Winners will be announced during the day tomorrow.

And don’t forget, we’ve got more going on this week besides contests! Shop for anything in our online store and get a big $12 discount off your purchase! You can read more here and start shopping now.

And best of all, May means it’s time to pick another blog contest winner! Last month Marc posted some good news about Mac eWallet, and that produced a lot of comments from happy readers – including our winner: Mark. Congrats, Mark! I’ve just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

And to everyone else out there: thanks so much for reading and leaving your thoughts. Keep coming back, because I’ll pick another winner in June (and definitely have my snow boots away by then) and who knows – it could be you!